Now that we’ve made our way back into a church where the Bible is reliably taught, I’ve been thinking about how we can get the girls to become more familiar with their Bibles. They don’t see any need to carry their Bible with them to church. After all, the church provides pew Bibles and the scripture is often projected on the screen, so why bother?

They do have a point. And it got me to thinking about the larger point of how in an effort to be friendly and convenient for people I was one of the early adopters in the “Put the words on the screen so everybody can see them movement.” But I was wrong. I enabled people to grow weak and fail to exercise an important muscle. There are some things people need to do for themselves, and finding their way through their Bible is one of them.

Now, to my credit, we also sold Bibles at the back of the auditorium for $2 each (Hardcovered) and those were the “official” Bibles we used on Sunday morning so that everyone could find the page number. When I called out a scripture reference I would always tell people what page it was on in order to help them find it. I’m OK with that. But I’m not OK with “Its on the big screen, so working in your own copy of the scripture is not necessary.”

Everyone who identifies as a follower of Christ should be growing in their ability to find their way around the Bible. The only way you’ll ever find your way around the scripture is—to find your way around the scripture; that is to use your preferred copy of the scripture to navigate to the books and through the verses to find the passage the pastor is referencing. So, you need to carry a Bible to church and work your way through it. Sunday morning is good preparation for private work on your own.

So, sorry Mad and Syd. You don’t get to travel light. Carry the Book with you, and when the pastor calls out the passage open it up, find it, and read and study along. Someday you’ll be glad Dad insisted. And to anybody I failed to help along in their development because I gave them too much of a crutch in putting the words up on the screen, I’m sorry. (Blame my buddy Mitch Moser. He bought the character generator like the TV stations used way before anyone had ever heard of Powerpoint.)

The Bible is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and I will hide its words in my heart that I may not sin against God.